Many modern medical procedures, such as catheritzation, intravenous therapy, tube feeding, nasal gasture feeding, canulas for oxygen therapy, and the like, use flexible tubing for the introduction and excretion of fluid into and out of a patient's body. Tubing used in such procedures is usually secured to the patient by means of adhesive tape.
While adhesive tape seems to work to secure tubing to a patient for short durations, many health care workers and patients alike experience problems with long term attachment to the patient using adhesive tape. For example, the tape may fall off after a period of use.
Therefore, the art has included several proposed solutions to the problem of inefficient securing of tubing to patients. While these proposed solutions have been somewhat effective, they still have problems. These devices are also often cumbersome to use and may not be comfortable for the patient.
These proposed solutions also are often expensive for at least two reasons. First, they may not be reusable. In fact, reusable products are being phased out because of the danger of cross contamination. Discarding such devices may make the devices expensive. Second, many of these devices are expensive to begin with. These expensive devices are made even more expensive if they are discarded after use. Any cumbersome device may be simply left on the shelf and tape used in its place. This makes such devices expensive since they are not used.
Therefore, there is a need for a tubing restraint that is disposable, dependable, inexpensive and easy to use.